Chrétien's writings impacted the Arthurian canon, establishing Lancelot’s subsequent prominence in English literature.

The story centers on Lancelot's rescue of Guinevere after she has been abducted by Meleagant, the malevolent son of King Bademagu, the righteous ruler of the nearby Kingdom of Gorre.

It deals with Lancelot's trials rescuing Guinevere, and his struggle to balance his duties as a warrior and as a lover bound by societal conventions.

Lancelot is regularly derided by locals along his journey for having reduced himself to such a lowly stature by riding in the aforementioned cart.

After many more encounters with beautiful women and rude knights, Lancelot and Gawain decide to part ways so that they may cover more ground.

Lancelot endures many trials, including battling three axe-bearing men, lifting a heavy slab of stone from a mysterious tomb, battling a foreign army from Logres, settling a dispute among those loyal to him over who may host him for the night, fighting against an overly prideful knight, and crossing an extremely sharp "sword-bridge".

Lancelot sneaks out of the tower before sunrise, and Meleagant accuses Guinevere of committing adultery with Kay, who is the only wounded knight known of nearby.

He was employed as a writer by aristocrats of Champagne, explaining the champenois dialect detected in his work, and he usually crafted stories based on material that was presented to him.

No recorded mention of an Arthurian knight named Lancelot precedes Chrétien, but he is believed to be derived from a Celtic myth.

[3] An abduction of the queen is one of the oldest motifs in Arthurian legend, appearing also in Caradoc of Llancarfan's Life of Gildas,[4] and carved on the archivolt in Modena Cathedral.

[5] After Chrétien's version became popular, it was incorporated into the Lancelot-Grail Cycle and eventually into Thomas Malory's influential Le Morte d'Arthur.

Marie de Champagne was well known for her interest in affairs of courtly love and is believed to have suggested the inclusion of this theme into the story.

[3] The Knight of the Cart contains a postface explaining that the story was completed not by Chrétien himself, but by the clerk known as Godefroi de Leigni.